Under the Mistletoe:Edward and Winry
by Toyoko
Summary: Winry learns that Ed has feelings for her, but after many years, does she still reciprocate these feelings? Will Winry and Ed end up under the mistletoe?


**I love Full Metal Alchemist but I've been watching more wrestling than anime since this year so I choose to write a more relaxed fic. Anyway enjoy some Winry and Ed magic at Christmas. I hope no one who reads this is a strong Rock Lee lover.**

**Disclaimer: I do not own Full Metal Alchemist nor do I own a bar of chocolate. Sniff, sniff. **

**Edward and Winry**

An armoured car pulled up a little later and in a quick flash, a short boy with long blonde hair, gloves and black clothes jumped out and quickly headed toward the door. His main objective was to save his automail from the cold. A blonde haired girl followed by a huge hunk of metal jumped out. They hauled the luggage of the back seat and flung them on the ground. Winry crossed her arms and shouted after Ed. How dare he leave her and Al to bring in the entire luggage?

'Selfish little brat,' she thought as she and Al hauled the luggage into the building. The military vehicle moved off sending snow flying everywhere as it raced back to headquarters, the driver anxious to see his baby girl, Alicia, again.

Ed sulked in the corner. Al and Winry were out having all the fun while he was subjected to staying inside tucked into his little corner all because of his automail. He could just hear Winry' voice in his head at that moment.

"Edward Elric! You know that you can't come outside with us until your automail is changed! It's all because of your stubbornness! If you had only changed it 3 months ago when I had asked then you wouldn't be in this predicament! It's your fault that you can't go out, now, sit boy!" She had said, using a phrase that she had borrowed from one of her newly acquired friends.

"Stupid girls," he muttered to himself as he crossed his hands over his chest defiantly and quite childishly. He swung his automail leg and couldn't help but notice the creaks and sounds of joints slowly disintegrating. Okay, so maybe Winry was right, it was old, but wasn't he big enough to make his own decisions? She wasn't the boss of him! Yet, he wondered, why had he let his head fall and let his legs bring him to the corner when she had told him to sit? And why did it bother him so much that Al was out making snow angels and such with her? He blushed at the thought. Maybe he was beginning to like her more than how he should. He quickly dismissed it from his immediate thoughts and went back to complaining.

The glass doors flew open 20 minutes later, bringing in a cold wind littered with young laughter. Ed sprang from his chair, his feet touching the ground for the first time in the last hour. Anger was the first emotion felt, not frustration at not being able to grow at all.

"I see someone had fun," he said as Winry and Al walked inside together. Winry turned to face Ed, her long blonde hair swaying with her movements.

"Brother, are you alright?" Alphonse asked. He had felt it for his brother when he found out that he couldn't go out or his automail would freeze and fall apart. If he had a heart, it would have gone out to his big brother.

"No! I'm not fine! How could I be after I see you two walk in here all smiles?" Ed exclaimed in his reply. Winry blinked rapidly for a few beats and Al took a step back.

"Why are you over-reacting? We've only been gone a little over an hour. What's wrong with you, Ed?" She asked, trying to control her temper, trying to be more composed than her friend.

"And how do you think I feel right now? For crying out loud, Winry, I l…" he trailed off, realizing what he was about to say. He immediately clamped his mouth shut and turned a bright red.

"Why are you so moody, Ed? First you're upset then you're quiet! What has been going on with you lately?" She asked.

"He's probably sick, Winry. Don't worry, I'll bring him upstairs," Al suggested as he lay a metal hand on Winry's shoulder. It burned Ed to see the loving look she cast up at Al and the way in which she patted his hand, even though she knew that he could feel nothing. For a moment Ed felt his eyes sear with hatred and then he realized…that was his brother. There was NO way he could hate his brother. Hatred for himself sprung from it and he turned his back to them, guilt washing over him like waves. It was not just the guilt for the spark of hatred he had felt for his brother, but it was the irony of it all. Of the two, it was his brother's job to hate him; after all, it was his fault why his brother had no body. Tears replaced the look of hatred in his eyes. He felt Al's hand on his shoulder and the familiar gentle pronunciation of a single word that twisted his insides every time he heard it.

"Brother," Al said. The tears rushed down and he reacted to them. He shoved Al's hand away and ran, leaving them behind to wonder about his sudden strange behaviour. Al's hand fell to his side. He was confused. What had he done?

Ed ran not knowing where he was particularly going. He knocked into a girl and not caring, continued on his way. Unknown to him, this tall, red-haired, big breasted girl fell on a tall, thin, girly-looking boy, right under a mistletoe. He continued running. He went up, and up, past rooms 1-10, 11-20, 21-30, 31-40, 41-50, 51-60, 61-70, 71-80 and even further up the stairs that lead to the penultimate floor of the hotel. His leg kept jerking and he was more than out of breath. His automail gave way and plunged him forward as he turned a corner. He collided with the bellboy who had been checking himself out in one of the hall mirrors.

"AHHH!" Rock Lee shouted in surprise as the short boy made painful contact with him.

"AHHH!" Ed shouted in pain, his cry resonating throughout the building, making some stop what they had been doing to listen and others to rush to the elevator. Winry knew his cry of pain more than anyone else and she was hoping that it wasn't what she thought it was. If it was, her mechanic mind kicked in, then he was up for a whole lot more of pain.

"Hello! Person who has fallen on me! Have you ever heard of something called personal space?" Rock Lee exclaimed as he pushed Ed from off of him. Ed rolled onto his back and drew his knee up to his chest, his face contorted with pain. He tried not to cry out again, sucking it up like the stubborn person he was. Rock Lee's eyes widened at the sight of Ed's shattered leg lying all over on the floor. He sat still, his brain not processing what his eyes were seeing. The elevator dinged open and in a flash of blonde, Rock Lee was back to himself again.

Winry fell to the ground beside Ed and immediately assessed the damages.

"Al! Come here! Quickly! ' got to be fixed now! I hope you're happy now, Edward Elric. You've just ruined the rest of the day for all of us," Winry rocked back on her heels as Al came to her side to pick Ed up in his hands. She flashed her hair over her shoulder and sprang to her feet.

"Hey gorgeous. The name is Lee. Rock Lee," Lee said, wriggling his bushy eyebrows at Winry. She shivered slightly, it was creepy.

"I could not help but notice the condition your friend is in and I extend my apologies to him. If it will help you, I will offer my suite to you and your friends so that he will have a speedy and luxurious recovery," he said getting up and leaning against the wall, trying to look cool.

"That's very nice of you and all, but as you can see, I have important business to attend to," she said and walked off, the thrill of touching metal sending shivers down her spine and the thought of pliers and screwdrivers made her head go light with delight. She was in love with her tools.

"But, babe…" Rock Lee tried to sweet talk her, forgetting the luggage he was leaving behind to follow her. She spun around to face him, making him screech to a halt. Her eyes blazed and her fists were clenched so hard that he imagined two horns coming out of her head and two long incisors extending to her chin. She was scary.

"Leave. Me. Alone." She snarled. He took a step back and watched her walk off…again. He shook but quickly and easily went back to checking himself in the mirror. Winry rolled her eyes and hoped she would never have another encounter with the pig again.

Ed let his head hang back as Al slowly descended the stairs, waiting for Winry to catch up.

"Brother, what has been the problem with you lately?" Al asked in confusion. Ed looked up at his little brother. He could not read emotions from Al's eyes, but he could imagine Al looking at him, concern etched in to his childish face, the face he knew was his brother's. Ed smiled easily and painlessly as he had done so many times so as to reassure Al. He pushed his own negative thoughts, guilt and worries to the side with this smile and looked right up at his brother…and lied. He was so used to it now that he keep wondering why it was that he kept on feeling guilty after he had given his brother a false sense of security. It was false, but it never failed to sooth Al and put his mind at ease, even if it was temporary. Ed wondered what it would be like when Al found out about all his lies. All his many lies.

"Nothing's wrong with me Al, it's just the weather," Ed lied smoothly. Al stopped walking and stared into space for a few moments. There was silence. Al broke it.

"When do you plan to stop?" Al asked. Ed's eyes widened slightly in surprise and a touch of confusion.

"Stop what?" Ed asked.

"Stop lying!" Al yelled, his voice strong with emotion. Ed's eyes narrowed and he cast them to the ground, unable to look at Al.

"Why won't you tell me the truth, brother? I'm old enough now! You don't always have to protect me and one day I know I'll be on my own. I can handle it, brother. I won't hate you for it…I can't," Al started off strong, his words losing their strength, but not their meaning the more he spoke.

"Al, I…I…I'm sorry, okay. I am, but I'm your big brother. It's…it's my job," he said.

"Everyone has to retire one day," Al said. There was a long pause filled with a battle of internal conflict on Ed's side and anxiety on Al's part. Unknown to them, Winry had stopped some steps up. She was giving them the time to settle whatever they had. She almost sighed out loud at the thought of confronting Ed about his strange behaviour.

"So, basically, you want me to tell you what's wrong with me…now?" Ed asked.

"Isn't that what brothers are for?" Al asked also. Ed looked away and blurted out everything.

"I think I like Winry. As in, REALLY like her and I was getting jealous about all the time you two were spending together," he said miserably. Al's eyes widened a bit and then he burst into laughter.

"Hey! It's not funny! Stop laughing!" Ed blushed as his eyebrows furrowed.

"I can't believe we just argued because you have a crush on Winry. You could have told me earlier, brother. Then I wouldn't have suggested going outside," Al said good-naturedly. Ed's blush slowly faded and Al continued down the stairs, conversation coming to the two brothers easily.

Winry didn't follow close behind as she had planned to. Her feet were plastered to the stairs, her hand stuck to the fancy railing. What Ed had said kept repeating in her head and bouncing off the walls of her mind.

"I like Winry, I like Winry. I like Winry," was all that she could think about. She slowly fell to sit on the stairs. She buried her head in her hands and thoughts that she had once had came springing up. She wanted to scream in frustration. She had long since buried those thoughts with the fear of rejection and the signs that said nothing. A tear slid down her cheek. She had spent years getting over Ed and now that he finally liked her back, what was she going to do?

_ - _ - _

Ed reclined on the big hotel bed that only Winry had been allowed to sleep on since they had arrived and since all three of them shared a room. It felt wonderful and was such a relief to his body that had spent the last night on a very uncomfortable couch which was strange for a hotel so luxurious. He closed his eyes and tried to ignore the pain and drift off to sleep. The door to the room slammed behind someone and his eyes flew open. Who was he kidding, sleep, with Winry around. Impossible, especially since they weren't exactly on good terms recently. His fault. He looked toward the door and saw Winry dressed in her tank top, head tie and baggy jeans with her big tool box in her hand. The look in her eyes reflected confusion, something he had never seen in her eyes before she fixed his automail. Something was wrong with her.

"Hey…Winry," he began, uncertain of what he should say. She didn't answer him, but only pulled a chair up to the bed.

"I'm sorry," he continued anyway. She glanced up at him, but he didn't see it for he was looking through the closed glass doors and out onto the snow-covered city.

"I'm sorry for the way I acted simply because I didn't get to go snowboarding with you and Al. I don't know what came over me. I'm sorry, okay," he said. She didn't reply, she just sat, staring at the ground.

"Winry! I'm sorry! I'm sorry! What else do I have to say?"

"You can stop pretending and tell me the truth, Edward! Why couldn't you tell me that you liked me? Why couldn't you?" She exclaimed. Ed was shocked, deeply and utterly shocked at knowing that she knew of his secret. Slowly, red blossomed on his cheeks and for a few seconds, he was confused at what to do.

"Winry…" he started.

"No Ed, no. Just…just forget it," she said, lapsing back into silence. She quickly set up her work area. The whole operation of putting on a new automail leg and checking his automail arm was silent, except for the quiet sounds of pain from Ed. The stifled tears he shed weren't only for the physical pain he was feeling but also for how his relationship with Winry was going to the dogs.

When she was finished, Ed was on his back, looking up at the ceiling, unaware of her packing up.

"You're good now," she said and stood to leave. She needed to figure this out. It was a sure thing that she had feelings for him, but how could she tell him that she felt the same way he did. They were young and careless. Was she ready for a relationship? What if she got hurt? Was she ready to grow up?

"You can't ignore me and this…this feeling I have for you, Winry. I've never felt anything like this for anyone before and I want you to feel the same way. I'm putting it all on the line right now. I've tried to hide it but obviously that didn't work. Now the cat's out of the bag. What are we going to do about it?" He asked. She looked back at him for a minute, turned around and walked off. She closed the door gently behind her as she left the room, leaning against it, trying to calm her mind. She could hear Ed let out a frustrated yell. What she couldn't see were the formation of tears in his eyes. She walked off, going somewhere to calm down.

_ - _ - _

Winry sat in the lobby on one of the fluffy couches. On the couch directly facing her sat a stranger. Dark hair, dark eyes and a rich outfit. He seemed as if he was going to a movie premiere. His dark eyes watched her have a seat and somehow saw the turmoil she was going through. She sat there, absorbed in her thoughts for about 10 minutes before he spoke up.

"I can see your day didn't go very well," he said.

'Why am I speaking to her?' He wondered. Maybe it was how awful and lonely she looked that appealed to him. It was strange, nothing appealed to him. Or maybe it was because she was cute.

"Yeah, you're right about that one," she said sending a tiny smile his direction. Somehow he felt sympathy for her instead of the usual want of getting a girl during her vulnerable moment.

"So, what happened?" He asked. Winry stared at him for a few seconds.

"I don't even know you. What made you think I would tell you my personal problems?" She asked. A little feisty. She reminded him of Sakura.

"It's always easier to tell a stranger your problems, especially since you'll never see him again," he said. Winry continued looking at him until she sighed and gave in to him. She had no one else to confide in at that moment.

"What do you do when someone loves you and you love them too?" She asked.

"Easy, you get married to that person," he thought. Another thought surfaced, was he in love?

"How do you tell them?" She asked.

"I love you," he said, "it's as simple as that."

"But what if you're afraid to get hurt. What if you're not ready for a relationship?"

"Then you wait."

"You make everything sound so easy."

"It is"

"No, it's not. I don't know what to do. I like him and he likes me and I've been thinking about us for quite some time, but I don't want to put my trust in him and he ends up failing my expectations. I'm afraid of being hurt like all those women out there. I don't want to be in that insecure group of women that either hate men or will never trust another man again," she blurted. The stranger leaned forward as he thought.

"Then what about those women who haven't been hurt? And those men who act tough but have had their hearts broken a million times into a million pieces? What if all of those who have been hurt decided never to try again? Then three quarters of the world would be alone and miserable. The whole point of living a good life is to do what you have to do, no matter who tries to fight against you, no matter who tries to humiliate you or no matter who tries to hurt you," he said, surprised at what he had just said. Winry was also surprised and inspired by his words. Was she going to take this chance? Yes. Yes she was going to.

"Thank you so much, Mister…Mister…" she began.

"Uchiha," he said, "Uchiha Sasuke." Winry smiled, pulled him into a hug and rushed off.

"That was weird," Sasuke admitted as he relaxed in the couch. It got him thinking though. It got him thinking about this girl that he was finding himself falling in love with.

Winry rushed into the elevator, eager to reach their room, eager to tell Ed that she felt the same way. The elevator opened on floor 3 and Ed stood in front of the elevator, obviously waiting for it. For a second, Winry was dumbstruck, her mind blank. When the door began to close, she stopped it and stepped out, to stand face to face with Edward.

"Ed," she began.

"I'm sorry for everything. I should have just kept it to myself. If I had kept it to myself then we wouldn't be in this predicament and our friendship wouldn't feel so lost. I'm just so sorry. I really am, please forgive me. We can be…" he started. She cut him off.

"I like you too, Edward Elric," she said. Ed trailed off and stared at her.

"Are you serious?" He asked.

"As serious as I am about tinkering," she smiled, a bit nervous.

"Wow," he said, that was all he could manage to say. He threw his head back and laughed and that was when his eyes caught something. A mistletoe. He kept staring at it, laughter forgotten. He knew what it stood for and he was thinking about it. He wanted to kiss Winry. Winry looked at him curiously then at what he was staring at. She saw the same thing. A mistletoe. They were supposed to kiss. They looked at each other and Ed took charge. He leaned forward and kissed her lightly on the lips. She smiled and kissed him back, bringing her hands up to hold his head and keep their lips close. Ed's hands gently grasped her sides and they were oblivious to the entire world.

Somewhere close by, Alphonse smiled to himself. It had been a good idea to put the mistletoe there. Props for him.

**Okay, so Edward and Winry are finished and if you want to know about Sasuke's romantic get-away, check out my profile for his version of Under the Mistletoe! Whoo hoo! And for those who read the one with Miroku and Sango, did you notice there was a blonde girl in the elevator?**


End file.
